


Sugar is Sweet, Not Just You

by sausaged



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-28
Updated: 2014-01-28
Packaged: 2018-01-10 08:23:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1157330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sausaged/pseuds/sausaged
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>"Hey, hey." The green eyes that Levi looks up to are more than just playful and it takes Levi about the mental strength of a hundred men, who couldn't raise a hand against a puppy, to resist punching this boy in the face upon first impression. "Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?"</i><br/> </p><p>Eren wants to play a game and Levi likes to talk a lot-- in his head.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sugar is Sweet, Not Just You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Trick_Fantasy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trick_Fantasy/gifts).



> for my dearest kissy!

*****

"Hey, hey." The green eyes that Levi looks up to are more than just playful and it takes Levi about the mental strength of a hundred men, who couldn't raise a hand against a puppy, to resist punching this boy in the face upon first impression. "Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?"  
 

Inside the small and sort-of-moist store, the creaky old air conditioner suddenly seems a little too loud. Levi shifts the boxes of chocolates under his arm awkwardly before glancing at the checkout counter where Hanji is staring with wide eyes, a packet of gummy bears sliding out of her slender fingers. He glances down at the boy again, feeling a little shocked and maybe also a little mildly amused...

   
And there is a stretch of silence (about five hundred years or so) where the sound of a pin dropping onto the ground can be heard from across the fucking universe before Hanji explodes in a flurry of excitement, torn between clutching at her forehead where it had gracefully (as graceful as a rhinoceros, Levi snorts) hit the counter or clutching at her stomach from the sheer muscle exertion that racks her body with each shaking sob of laughter.

   
The small frightened and confused child at the counter bursts into tears at Hanji's sudden mood swing, the grubby paw clutching onto a worn and crumpled blue five dollar bill comes up and _wipes at his fucking snotty nose_ before walking forlornly toward the doorway. The same hand then comes up to the glass, a smudged hand print pressing itself onto the surface that Levi had just wiped not _five fucking minutes ago._

   
"Hey, hey." Levi twitches and it is a rather visible thing because the boy standing in front of him is grinning like a cat with cream. "Is your dad an astronaut? Because someone took the stars from the sky and put them in your eyes."

   
Hanji is howling at this point, clutching onto the counter, all the purchases the child from earlier had wanted to make is now thrown all across the floor. Levi flexes his free hand before tucking it smartly under the boxes of chocolates he was holding before he would get in trouble for assaulting this little smartass who thinks it's so funny to fuck around with him.

   
Levi doesn't know how to handle a situation like this.

   
This was never in his fucking training.

   
How are you supposed to deal with a brat at least five years younger than yourself without caving into the need to punch the brat's face into the wall (not because of embarrassment, of course)?

   
The boy runs a hand through his messy brown hair, his grin all teeth and looking ever so pleased with himself. Levi quickly determines he cannot be any older than 16 years old because in his hand is a bag of large sour keys and a few sour watermelons with a handful of Jelly Bellies.

   
Typical of teenagers.

   
He isn't even _gourmet_ , Levi thinks with a disbelieving edge to his mental voice, appalled at how someone cannot enjoy the finer and more complex tastes in salty licorice.

   
After approximately five light years of staring and listening to Hanji's bubbling laughter subsiding into hiccups of joyful squeals, the boy begins to look sort of uncomfortable and Levi finally decides then to turn on his heel, taking the chocolates into the storage room without another word (not that he had said anything in the first place, but that doesn't matter). Best to let Hanji take charge of the situation-- he really doesn't get paid enough for this crap.

   
The back of the store is an exciting green that reflects all the fun and joy and heart attacks and diabetes they supply in glass jars and plastic containers outside in the store front. Rows and rows of flavoured and brightly coloured sugar adorned the shelves, the sweet and unique smell of candy crawling from the cracks of their confinements into the atmosphere of the candy shop, a smell that clings onto every fibre of Levi's body (and clothes) even when he closes up the Shoppe for the day (he secretly likes to pretend he is Willy Wonka on his breaks (no jokes). He doesn't usually mind the smell so much, as it is more pleasant than a public urinal. But all of this is completely irrelevant because there is some snot-nosed brat in the front who seems to be conducting a school psychology experiment to see how many times he can get punched in the face in fifteen minutes with Googled pick-up lines.

   
Ah. Would it really kill for someone to be original nowadays? Something like “you are the shit stain in my porcelain toilet” or maybe “you can't have urine without the _u_ ”...? Levi flattens a cardboard box mindlessly as he contemplates such important matters in life, because he might've thought the kid was a little more attractive if he was more imaginative and less mainstream.

   
Pause.

   
He snorts at himself. Softly though, like a concealed fart. _Mainstream?_ Pfffft.

   
Levi takes his sweet ass time cleaning up the backroom and putting away the chocolate. All of which, by his methodical (therefore efficient and quick) techniques that he's acquired through years of professional candy piling experience, only took him about 30 minutes or so. Judging that that is probably enough time for Hanji to have gotten rid of the plagiarizer, Levi returns to the store front with a small tray of samples.

   
Unfortunately, because the universe hates Levi and whatever shit ass degree he is trying to obtain which required him to have a flexible and sort of above minimum wage job, the boy is now leaning against the checkout counter, exchanging little whispers and giggles with Hanji. Their conversation stops short in his presence and the green eyed boy looking like he is about to topple over with shaking anticipation— what bullshit did Hanji feed him while he was away, he will never find out-- and Levi braces himself by counting to ten in his head.

   
"Hey. If you were a transformer, you'd be Optimus Fine."

   
Levi stops counting at nine and three quarters, and the urge to smother the fucking brat hits him like the fucking Hogwarts Express. But thank the Gods he seems to be really good at this Immobulus Charm or he would've physically Crucio'd this little bastard with his bare hands and be, potentially, out of a job. But with this thought, Levi decides he can’t make any promises next time with his hidden innate abilities to conjure magic out of that stick in his ass because physically Crucio-ing someone has always been a part of his wannabe hashtag-thug-life (wannabe because no self respecting future BA in Shit Ass would ever succumb to the need for physical Crucios and Levi is an adult). Mistaking Levi's silence as an invitation, the boy braves himself and continues. "Life without you is like a pencil without lead— pointless."  
 

Out of the corner of his eye, Hanji hits the ground on her knees. Is she having a seizure? Good. If this doesn't kill her, he hopes that Hanji will laugh so hard that her insides will twist into a fucking bunch and fall out from her vagina, killing her in the process.

   
Plot twist: when Levi really thinks about this whole thing, he could've easily stopped the boy if he had wanted to—a long time ago. In fact, right when the word ‘angel’ escaped those lips of his, Levi could’ve hit him with a real Snickers or maybe a Twix to his stomach and that really would’ve been a good Bueno. 

   
Grudgingly, in his head, Levi admits to himself he might've had a little bit of fun with the quiet nerdy references in his head and the small angry rant that would likely only escape him in the form of a _fuck_ and a creative combination of nouns that only belong in the bathroom.

   
Plus, something about the boy being so nervous and scuffing his dirty sneakers against Levi’s immaculately scrubbed tiled floors ( _fuck_ ) is endearing.  
 

And perhaps the moisture of the store is what drives Levi to make such an out of character and astounding move (because Levi doesn't really work well in humid conditions and his extended warranty never covered water damage), because after the next pick up line that comes out of the kid’s mouth (it was something about if he was a gardener, he’s plant his tulips next to Levi’s), Levi scoffs and counters with his own. “My interest in you is like diarrhea. I can barely hold it in.”  
 

The silence is about the weight of a healthy 8 pound baby boy, fresh out of his mother’s oven. Hanji is off in another world now, a land where Levi’s foot is not on her face and gummy bears are not still strewn across the shiny tiled floors of this tiny but extravagantly flourished candy shop (she had more than 30 minutes to clean that shit up-- _what the fuck_ ). The bonbons on the top shelf behind the checkout counter rejoice Levi’s first words of the hour with their brightly coloured coats and each lollipop seem to be swirling with delight at the sound of Levi’s voice. With so much commotion going on, Levi doesn’t even give himself enough time to appreciate how perfectly he managed to weave in his fondness for toilet humor and congratulate himself for shocking the boy into silence before—  
 

The kid’s lips split into a stunning and impressive grin. "My name is Eren!"  
 

It's the moisture that makes Levi snatch the kid’s bag of little treats, dropping a single piece of his favourite Norwegian salted licorice inside at the kid's loud groan of dismay. "I didn't ask."  
 

   
Now, he’ll start this promising relationship off with asking the boy to wipe the fucking glass doors with Windex first.


End file.
